‘We
expect Christians . . . to stand up for the truth, to stand up for justice, to
stand on the side of the poor and the hungry, the homeless and the naked, and
when that happens, then Christians will be trustworthy believable witnesses.’

Seven
years later those sentiments stand in stark contrast to what the Minister and
his Department are doing to asylum-seekers, and not least to their children. ‘State-sanctioned child abuse’ is
what some Church leaders have called it.

Even the Oz, renowned as in a class of its
own when it comes to biased political reporting, can’t
ignore the evidence of child neglect and abuse revealed by the
Australian Human Rights Commission inquiry into the treatment of children in
Australia's immigration detention centres. (It can, of course, do what it does
best: attempt to sully the reputation of
the Commissioner in that case and accuse the most trusted media outlet in the
country, yet again, of bias.)

Julia Baird explains, persuasively, why “the
Church has a duty to speak up” on this distressing issue.